Starbucks One Touch iPhone payments app comes to UK

Starbucks has announced that it will be bringing it's mobile payment app already available Stateside to the UK in the new year. The one-touch mobile app will allow you to enter any one of 700 Starbucks coffee shops and pay through the tech. The app will be available on both iPhones and iPods.

This seems to be in response to customers having to wait far too long for their morning/afternoon brew and will save a vital 10 seconds per transaction - not a huge amount of time you might think, but imagine if this kind of tech was embedded in every shop on the high street; you could end up saving minutes.

Brian Waring, vp of Marketing & Category for Starbucks UK and Ireland said: "Customers want to be served quickly, but fewer want to use cash. We wanted to find a way for them to pay in the quickest way possible. Because our customers want it, we have created our own custom-built mobile payment technology rather than waiting for the near field communication technology which is currently not widely available. We're always thinking of new ways to add value to our customers and give them more reasons to choose Starbucks.

This payment innovation was launched in US Starbucks stores at the beginning of 2011 and has seen quite a take up. Just download the app, link it to your Starbucks account and you'll then be able to hold up your personal barcode where it will be scanned when purchasing.

We're told it should be coming imminently, although it's not showing in the App Store just yet.